I don't know what or if any social economic issues play a role here - are some of the factors due to being better paid & mostly living in places that are big City holiday destinations, that may tempt young guys with cash on the hip to party more which in turn leads to drinking problems. Or is it the higher profile the game has down under and thus more pressure on the players a cause, who knows. Is there generally a bigger drinking culture among the NRL teams compared to SL?
This part of the article makes interesting reading though especially when you think what happened to the likes of Tim Smith & Kevin Locke at Trinity or Joel Tomkins at Wigan.
Quote: "Time and time again, year after year, the common factor in footballers either ruining their own lives, the lives of others, or the reputation of the game in general, is ... excess of grog.
But does the NRL do the obvious and bring in huge penalties for getting ed as a newt?
Of course not. And there are two obvious reasons why not.
The first reason is that it would be bloody well un-Australian to do so. Getting fall-over rat-faced ed is simply what Australian blokes do, don’t you know? And the second reason is that when the game is heavily sponsored by grog companies, those sponsors might take a very dim view of the NRL doing what all alcoholics need to do, which is to say “I need help, I have a real problem with alcohol.”
We know it does. We can see it does. But can the NRL see it?'"
HOW MANY TIMES?????
£20 a ticket and £15 on beer and merchandise.....so an away fan is worth £35. At best, 1,000 is the average away support split across 11 rounds and I am being really generous here, so Toronto, replacing say Wakefield will cost a SL club £35,000.
The minimum turnover of a SL club is £4,000,000 so Toronto instead of Widnes is worth less than 1% of a SL clubs turnover.
There are many valid reasons for and against expansion into America, but "AWAY FANS" isn't one of them. 
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